Assessment of factors that could affect the success of US-guided contrast injection for hip MR arthrography

To retrospectively evaluate the association between possible influencing factors and failed first attempts to inject a contrast agent intra-articularly under ultrasound (US)-guidance for direct magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography of the hip joint.

Ninety consecutive patients (38 women and 52 men; mean age, 42 years) undergoing US-guided hip MR arthrography (3 bilaterally) were retrospectively included in this study. The potential influencing factors were sex, age, body mass index (BMI), side of injection, target site, trajectory of the needle, additional use of needle tip rotation, failed first-attempt, and capsule elongation at the site of needle insertion.

First-attempt failure was significantly associated with reduced capsule elongation at the target site and no additional use of needle tip rotation (OR 10.708; 95% CI 1.847-62.059; OR 3.518; 95% CI 1.120-11.047). Capsule elongation (sufficient for needle bevel insertion) was significantly larger at the femoral head-neck junction (5.2 ± 1.5 mm) than at the femoral head (2.9 ± 1.3 mm) (p < 0.001).

Less capsular elongation of the femoral head and no additional use of needle tip rotation to reduce the difficulty in contrast material delivery can increase the first-attempt failure rate in patients undergoing US-guided hip arthrography.